Breakdown of Leipä kovenee, kun se kylmenee.
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
leipä
bread
kun
when (conjunction)
kylmetä
to get cold
koveta
to harden
Questions & Answers about Leipä kovenee, kun se kylmenee.
Why do both verbs kovenee and kylmenee end in -nee?
These are Type 6 verbs. Their dictionary forms end in -eta or -etä. To find the stem, you drop the -ta or -tä and add -ne-. For the third-person singular (he/she/it) form, you double the last vowel of the stem. So kovene- + e becomes kovenee, and kylmene- + e becomes kylmenee.
What are the dictionary forms of these verbs?
They are koveta (to harden) and kylmetä (to get cold). Notice how Type 6 verbs are often built directly from adjectives: kova (hard) becomes koveta, and kylmä (cold) becomes kylmetä. They usually describe a change of state, meaning 'to become' that adjective.
How do I make these verbs negative to say 'The bread doesn't harden'?
To make the present tense negative, you take the negative word ei and add the verb's -ne- stem without any extra personal endings. So 'it doesn't harden' is simply ei kovene.
How would these verbs look in the past tense, as in 'The bread hardened'?
For the past tense of Type 6 verbs, the final -e- of the -ne- stem changes to an -i-. The third-person past tense doesn't double the vowel, so kovenee (hardens) becomes koveni (hardened), and kylmenee (gets cold) becomes kylmeni (got cold).
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